Qualities: “We will turn to the main food companies” – the capital market

Qualities currently sells 8 different products containing omega 3 extracted from algae, along with other vitamins and minerals. Qualites has recently completed a clinical study which showed that the use of omega-3s and its dietary supplements resulted in a reduction of up to 25% in bad cholesterol. These are sold at 8,000 points of sale in the US, including chains such as Target and Whole Foods, as well as online sales on Amazon and direct sales to consumers through the company’s website in a model of subscriptions, numbering several tens of thousands.

Total sales stand at a few million dollars a year. In the coming year, however, Glickman predicts a 300% increase in sales, with the company starting to sell in new chains and moreover when it launches the plant protein products it develops, including powders and protein supplements for athletes as well as smoothies and other protein snacks (imagine a kind of chips snack, just healthy).

If so, the company has completed a $ 10 million round of funding, led by the PeakBridge fund of Nadav Berger and Eric Sieber, which will invest $ 5 million in the company, alongside two or three other investors who will inject an additional $ 2 million, one of whom is an investor strategic. The balance of the amount will be invested by the parent company Minrav Holdings. Other existing investors in the company are Kibbutz Sasa and American Trucent, which is a strategic investor in Qualities. The company estimates that the amount raised will be sufficient for the company until it reaches an operational balance.

“Pickbridge’s deep ties and glorious past in the food industry are totally going to help us in the face of global food companies,” Glickman says. “Pickbridge is the only company that is a partner in EIT Food, which is a public-private organization in Europe that aims to build the theme of food innovation on the continent together with the big companies.”

Is there a leading food brand you can estimate that Qualities will contact in the future?
“I prefer not to talk about specific companies at the moment but of course we will turn to all the major food companies and start getting interested in our protein. Let’s say that anyone who looks at this industry knows that the issue of plant protein is one of the important things, and many startups raise a lot of money “.

What else is expected to change following the entry of new investors?
“Pickbridge will put its representative on the board and clean up an advisory committee that will be very significant and help lead Qualities especially in the research areas, which will be partnered by the new strategic investor. The recruitment will allow us to accelerate the development plans of plant-based protein products.”

Mit Tech and Cyborit issued in Tel Aviv and we see the tremendous value at which Beyond-Meat and Impossible Foods, which raises in the private market, are traded. Your next recruitment will already be on Wall Street?
“(Laughs) As one who has spent part of his life in a public company (Glickman served as Vice President at Frutarom – AP) I prefer that at this stage of Qualities we continue to grow without the need to become a public company. I believe this is how we will eventually achieve a great result for investors.”

Building on vegetarians in India. Qualities algae growing field

The corona disrupted the schedule
At the present time Qualities is only known in the US. About two years ago the company expected to penetrate additional territories such as Australia, Japan, China, India and Europe, as well as market the protein products in late 2019 and during 2020, so the interview with Glickman could engage their existing sales and not expect Future, but the execution was partially delayed – and then came the corona.

“It has been a very problematic year,” Glickman admits. “Developing activity in international markets is not the easiest thing to do remotely from the zoom. In Australia the regulatory route has slowed down a lot. There has been an almost complete halt to the economy for a few months. “When the markets calm down in the coming months, we can start thinking about marketing them to our existing customers.”

What is the first market you will enter after the US?
“We are looking at two markets – also Australia I mentioned, which is a very interesting market because of the high awareness of the values ​​of our brand, and India – where over 50% of the population is vegetarian and can not consume omega 3 produced from fish, of which quite a few live in the Western world. We have an excellent solution for them. ”

What advantage do your protein products have over the alternatives?
“Protein is made up of several types of amino acids, and each has a different composition, whether it is soy protein, egg or beef. The ideal is a protein that will contain them all in a balanced way – and this is what we have, unlike other plant proteins. The protein we developed is similar to gold protein. “A standard that comes from eggs and milk, only unlike it is also suitable for vegans and not just vegetarians, and moreover its production is sustainable. We can grow huge quantities of it in a very small area, without fresh water, and with only solar energy.”

What sets Qualities apart from other food tech companies that talk about big promise but are far from commercial production, or have arrived but the market just isn’t ripe for them yet?
“There are two fundamental differences – the first is that we have gone through the entire regulatory process in the United States, and the second is that we already have sales.”

But your growth is also built on those protein products that you have not yet started selling and have not yet gone through the regulatory path.
“True. But we will do that too, and we will increase Qualities significantly. The buzz around food tech shows how much this market is growing and interesting, just like I said we already live in it, know how to sell and our brand has a presence in thousands of stores and tens of thousands of private customers. It is completely different from companies that are still in the research and development stages of their first product – it’s not that I say that there are no such interesting companies, we are just at a much more advanced stage and our maturity is clear. ”